“If I’d said at work what he said in public I would have been sacked,” they said.

“Yet so far nothing has happened to him. The chairman should have picked up on it instantly but he did nothing.

“It’s very disappointing. This sort of language shouldn’t be tolerated nowadays and a lot of my party colleagues feel the same.”

They added to the London Evening Standard: “We’re always being told to take our lead from senior councillors like Mr Forsbrey. But I’m afraid that this sets the worst sort of example.”

The retired butcher and Tesco manager, 68, of Ashford, Surrey, is said to be an influential member of the local Tory Party and has been a member of the council since 1998.

In a letter to fellow councillors, he wrote: “I have spoken to the Council’s Monitoring Officer last night about the Planning Committee on 30 May 2012.

"I recognise that it is an old fashioned phrase and that people may well take offence at the language.

“With hindsight, I should not have made my point with those words. I had no desire to offend anybody and would offer you my unreserved apology for any offence caused.”

On Thursday night, a council spokeswoman admitted the choice of words were “hasty and unwise” but denied he had engaged in racism, insisting it had “absolutely no racist intent whatsoever”.

“(He) was merely trying to express that he was going against the opinion of others in the room,” she said.

“In trying to hurriedly bring to mind a suitable expression he has used a figure of speech that not only did not express his meaning correctly but is also inappropriate for modern use.

“Cllr Forsbrey swiftly and wholeheartedly apologised for any offence in writing that he may have inadvertently caused.”

She added: “In addition, the phrase was not directed at any individual and there is no purpose or tone in his choice of words other than that of trying to express an opposing view to that of the majority.

“The choice of words is hasty and unwise but with absolutely no racist intent whatsoever.” She declined to say what action would be taken against the councillor.

On Thursday night, the councillor was unavailable for comment as he was on holiday in Turkey. Spelthorne’s MP is Kwasi Kwarteng, the son of Ghanaian immigrants.